ISI hired men to kill Indian Consul General, says Afghan Intelligence Agency spokesperson
Kabul, May 13: Afghanistan National Intelligence Agency spokesperson Lutfullah Mashal has said that Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) hired two men to kill the Indian Consul General of Jalalabad province.
Mashal said the two men confessed that ISI hired and paid them to kill the Indian Consul General.
"Well, these two guys have very clearly confessed that they were hired by ISI, they were paid by ISI and they were promised that if they killed the Indian Consul General, they will be paid 1.20 lacs, which is a big amount of money in Afghanistan," said Mashal on Thursday.
The two attackers, who were planning to assassinate the top Indian official were nabbed by the Afghan Intelligence agency earlier and were identified as Sher Zamin and Khan Zamin.
The attackers in their confessional statement to the Afghan authorities named a Pakistani Colonel, who is believed to be the mastermind of the whole plan.
"The person, whose name these two Afghans have given us is Colonel Noman, who is called to be the ISI's chief officer in North-West Frontier Province," added Mashal.
According to the Afghan Intelligence spokesperson, the two assassins are now in their custody.
"They were planning to attack the Council General and kill him and if they do not succeed then they will plan some Ids or bombs or remote control mines on his way. But fortunately before they could succeed in their plan, our agency, the Afghanistan National Intelligence agency, arrested them," said Marshal.
"These two guys are in our custody. They have admitted their crime and they have told us that they were hired by Pakistani intelligence services to kill the Council General of India in Jalalabad," he added.
The Afghanistan authorities also seized two AK 47 rifles and explosive from the two militants.
Meanwhile, Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh, who is on a two-day visit to Kabul, held talks with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai on wide ranging issues including militancy and India's assistance to the war-torn country.
At a joint press conference with Karzai, Dr. Manmohan Singh expressed his concern over a report, which said the Indian mission was the target of a terror plot in Afghanistan.
Showing his concern, Karzai said that the earlier attacks on Indian missions in Afghanistan were tragic, unfortunate and acts of terror.